Supernatural: The Animation, Closer Look PART 5

We are on our way through Supernatural season 13, so to pass the time during this mid-season hiatus, join me for a look at the "other" Supernatural - the Supernatural: Animation series! If you would like to catch up with the earlier articles, you can check them out here: PART 1, PART 2 , Part 3 and Part 4. This is the final and last part of these articles.

For each animated episode, I will give a short recap of the story then give a few words of what I think about them. Nate shared links for his reviews in the first article so I will add links for these episodes as well after each introduction. Give them a peek! Also YellowEyedSamcontinues to offer comparison videos between episodes from the show and anime. Thank you Nate and Y.E.S.!

Full Jared Padalecki interview - Supernatural The Animation

Supernatural J2 Japanese interview

Supernatural Animation intros with Jared and Jensen

EPISODES

19. Loser

“I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the furyof nature.” ― Paulo Coelho

Episode 19 is an anime-original episode. Jake, a foot soldier in Afghanistan,was being bullied by the other soldiers and harassed mentally by yellow-eyed demon. Meanwhile, Sam sees another premonition where the boy who tried to steal Baby and his family would get killed by YED. He sees a picture with Jake and he suspects that the YED plans to kill Jake's family and drag him into his schemes. In Afghanistan when the troops face destruction, Jake exercises his power to help his fellow soldiers and evacuate them from the battlefield but that good deed will bite him in the ass. Later, Jake comes back to his home town from the battlefield and disaster strikes. Jake is filled with fury and YED might succeed in what he is attempting.

This was a curious episode because it deepened a character that we had seen on the show. The story has slight differences but it still mostly fit as a background story for Jake. I think this is one of the best original stories in the animation and it really doesn’t go overboard like animations usually do. We see the story where Jake originated and we also get to know about his family. Yellow-eyed demon also has more influence on Jake in this story and it is actually pretty horrible what happens to him. It fits in well with Supernatural storytelling though. The tragic story that happens to his brother would drive anyone over the edge or in this case – to anger, fury. Jake truly is a good guy and we even get to see his Afghanistan adventure where he noticed he had powers.

Main characters

Sam WinchesterDean Winchester

Jake TalleyDanny TalleyLynn Talley Debra Talley TyroneYED

Quotes

Sam: Nine o'clock tonight - that's when its going to happen. When the Yellow Eyed Demon is going to take Jake's family. Just like he did with mom and Jessica. Exactly the same pattern and then he's gonna pull Jake over to the other side.Dean: To the other side, huh? Hey Danny! Make sure you don't get the driver's seat wet. You gotta handle it gently. You know what I mean? Like she's a real classy lady. NO! Not like that. Hold on. Gimme that! I'll show you how it is done. Now watch carefully.Sam: Dean, it is useless if you do it yourself.Dean: No way. I can't let this punk kid take care of my beautiful Impala.

Dean: What's up? Sam: Listen Dean, There's something that has been bugging me.Dean: What's that?Sam: The Yellow-Eyed-Demon said: "That Jake wouldn't need him to awaken his powers and it would only take another mortal to unleash them. That's what he said. Dean: Jake...Sam: Another mortal, he said it would take another mortal.

This is a remake of the 2.20 "What Is and What Should Never Be". The episode pretty much goes as the live version. Dean wakes up in a totally different world beside a woman he doesn't know. His mother Mary is alive and his father is dead, he is married to a beautiful woman, Sam is engaged to Jessica and they don't have the same brother relationship they normally have. With the help of the Winchester Gospels in the dream world, Dean soon realises he's been captured by a Djinn he was hunting with Sam. The Djinn is slowly bleeding him dry. Dean wants to stay in that world that is not real but will he?

This episode is one of my favorites in the live series and it is also one of my favorites in the anime. It is also a pretty sad one even though the life Dean lives is what he seems to have wanted. The life he thought Sam would want too. Their lives are normal and everything is perfect but the world is almost too perfect, which is what ultimately is it's undoing. It was nice to see Mary alive and what she could have been even though she was probably more what Dean imagined her to be. Jessica and Sam were also what you could imagine them to be but I always need to remind myself that the world was created from Dean's thoughts. Nothing was real there. It was nice to see Bobby in this episode too even though he was not himself either. Also Dean faced the question of parenthood in the anime version. In the end, the episode turned a little overly dramatic but well, that was a little hiccup to an otherwise great episode.

This episode reminds me about a song Dream A Little Dream Of Me by Ella Fitzgerald or What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong

I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom, for me and you. And I think to myself,what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue, And clouds of white. The bright blessed day, The dark sacred night. And I think to myself, What a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow, So pretty in the sky. Are also on the faces, Of people going by, I see friends shaking hands. Saying, "How do you do?" They're really saying, "I love you".

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow, They'll learn much more, Than I'll ever know. And I think to myself, What a wonderful world.

Yes, I think to myself, What a wonderful world.

Oh yeah.

Main characters

Sam WinchesterDean Winchester

Mary WinchesterJessica MooreCarmen PorterBobby Singer

Quotes

Dean: What the hell are you talking about? We go hunting together all the time.Sam: Hunting? Yeah, you said that on the phone too. What is it we hunt Dean? Deer, wild boar? What?Dean: I get it. I suppose it makes sense if mom is alive in this world then we really wouldn't need to go hunting. Sam: Huh?Dean: So, I guess we really wouldn't see each other very often now would we? And we've got nothing in common.

Sam: Dean!!! Dean, come on. Wake up! Hang in there you big jerk. Come on!Dean: Sammy! Come here. Oh Sammy, I was so happy. I was really happy for once in my life.Sam: Dean?.. - Its okay, welcome back jerk. I'm here Dean. Its going to be alright. Its alright.

“I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life.” ― Corazon Aquino

This is a remake of the 2.21 "All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1". Things are coming together when the last two episodes are upon us. Sam is checking out demonic omens that are becoming more and more frequent. He suddenly vanishes from the Impala. Dean seeks Bobby's help and they head out to see a familiar friend. Sam wakes up to find himself in a ghost town with other psychics called Lily, Jake, Andy, Ava. All of the individuals that are trapped have powers and they all promise to help each other stay alive. It is not working because someone is killing them one by one. Meanwhile Missouri's place has been destroyed before they got there, like the Roadhouse was in the live version. Sam sees a dream that reveals everything for him and he also finds out that Ava has been there for a while, and she's been killing all other psychic kids. Sam asks Jake to fight together against the Yellow Eyed Demon but he wants to keep his family safe. which won't happen if he does not do what the YED wants. Sam and Jake fight and Sam almost wins, but doesn't finish him off Jake...

We are closing in on the finish line! And what a way to do it. The three last episodes of the anime are all great and this, like the last one, are based on the live action version. We have more characters and special effects than we had in the live version. And some scenes are a little bit overboard but they still work. Surprisingly the heartbreaking scene in the end has been left to the next episode, and the city where Sam ends up is more like a large city in ruins. Also most of the characters remain superficial because they only appear in this episode in the animation. It helped me when I knew them from the show. Also, it was surprising that Missouri was in this episode. I truly liked that she had more influence on the boys' story. I did like that this episode ended on a happier note than the original. Also, it gets points for Jensen finally voice acting Dean.

Mary: John, don't worry about the baby I -- John, is everything alright? Sam: Mom?Mary: John, why don't you go to bed? I can feed the baby. -- Its you?! You stay away from Sam!Sam: Get away from her!YED: Relax Sam. You can't change the past.Sam: Mom!

“Death is not the greatest lossin life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live." ― Norman Cousins

This is a remake of the 2.22 " All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2". We start with Dean's speech to dead Sam who Jake stabbed in his back and killed. Dean is not handling it well. Devastated by grief, Dean makes a deal with the crossroad demon. He gets Sam back and one more year to live as a trade. After that, his soul is a goner. Sam wakes up and he is back alive but all hell breaks loose after that. The YED battles with Jake and then tries to get Jake to open the Hell's Gate. Bobby is not happy with Dean and we have a surprise arrival from a character. The opening of the gate is upon us and nobody is safe.

One thing that I immediately thought about while watching this was how I missed Ellen from it. Missouri gave a good balance though. The last episode was beautifully designed and written. I liked it a lot but a few things made it feel... Well, not my cup of tea even though there were not that much to complaint about it. One scene was a little bit too brutal and few of the dialogue lines were too harsh for my book. Jensen and Jared did a great job with the voice acting. I could see that they had given even more effort to the animation and drawings. I also liked how it ended on a happy note and the possibility for the next season but alas, that was not in the cards.

Crossroads demon: I'm sorry Dean but that pathetic soul of yours isn't really worth that much. Now, why don't you run along and bury Sam before he starts to rot.Dean: Okay, a year. About one year then.Crossroads demon: It's a fire sale and everything must go, is that it? That's what it sounds like. You really are so incredibly sexy when you are desperate, you know that?Dean: So what do you say? Crossroads demon: Okay, one year plus Sam's life that much I can say yes to for now but listen up - if you try to weasel your way out of this the deal is off. Sam drops dead and he's back to rotten meat in no time. So, what do you say?

Sam: Stop right there!Jake: Sam?.. Sam, is that you? How did you?.. You're suppose to be dead.Sam: Yeah, but I am not. Drop the gun Jake.Jake: There's no way!Sam: You can't get away!

"Carry on my wayward sonFor there'll be peace when you are doneLay your weary head to restDon't you cry no more"

I had a lot of strong candidates from to choose from but in the end it was pretty easy. I think the Winchester Gospels was the icing on the cake and Bobby as a movie rental guy. The episode was still sad but in reality if the Djinn had changed a few parts of it, it would have been perfect. That life I would have wished for Sam and Dean. Now, at least we had this episode.

I hope you enjoyed this trip through the series Supernatural: the Animation but now we are done. Carry on!